NEW COALITION MEMBERS / NUMBER OF LOWER HOUSE SEATS / NUMBER OF CABINET POSTS

       Japan New Party--35 seats--1 post

       Japan Renewal Party--55 seats--5 posts

       New Harbinger Party--13 seats--1 post

       Socialist Party--70 seats--6 posts

       Clean Government Party--51 seats--4 posts

       Democratic Socialist Party--15 seats--1 post

       United Social Dem. Party--4 seats--1 post

       People's Reform Association--0 seats--0 posts

       Following the July general election, these coalition partners formed a majority in the 512-member lower house, picked a coalition representative, and immediately set about proposing laws and policies for political reform. Discussions that were once carried out secretly in the smoke-filled rooms of the LDP headquarters were now being debated openly in the halls of parliament. This is a dramatic change, and the Japanese people have accepted it calmly and with hope. The reform-oriented, centrist, liberal coalition is not made up of revolutionaries--the key actors are seasoned politicians with years of experience.

       The only thing unifying this uncomfortable coalition of dissimilar parties is its opposition to the LDP and its commitment to "political accountability." On nearly every other policy issue (taxes, defense expenditures, constitutional revision, etc.) its views are sharply divided.

       This is a coalition of convenience. It includes two recent LDP defector groups (the Japan Renewal Party and the New Harbinger Party), the Socialist Party (officially the Social Democratic Party of Japan), two socialist splinter groups (the Democratic Socialist Party and the United Social Democratic Party), a progressive party (the Japan New Party), a centrist Buddhist party (the Clean Government Party), and an upper house group, the Peoples' Reform Association. The only parties excluded from participation in the coalition were the Japan Communist Party and the LDP.